He said afterward that he's feeling better, but neither he nor manager Rob Thomson offered a timetable for his return to the Phillies' lineup.
Asked if he believes he's close to returning, Harper was cautious.
“I don’t know,” he said. “It was my first day swinging the bat. I need to see how it feels tomorrow and see if we can progress—from there, we can ramp up.”
Harper has been sidelined since June 7 with inflammation in his right wrist—an issue that appears to be connected to the same discomfort that lingered for much of last season.
“The pain was gone,” Harper said, “but then it popped back up again in late May.”
The 31-year-old tried to push through, but it became too much.
“I felt like I came back and was feeling the pain—it just wasn’t a pain that I could tolerate on the field,” he said.
He’s hopeful that rest and a conservative rehab approach will help eliminate both the pain and the inflammation.
“Wrist injuries are tough,” Harper said. “Especially when you try and swing a bat.”
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